NotesBenthic foraminiferal distribution in surface sediments along continental slope of the southern Okinawa Trough: dependance on water masses and food supply

Benthic foraminiferal analysis of 29 samples in surface sediments from the southern Okinawa Trough is carried out. The results indicate that benthic foraminiferal abundance decreases rapidly with increasing water depth. Percentage frequencies of agglutinated foraminifera further confirm the modern shallow carbonate lysocline in the southern Okinawa Trough. From continental shelf edge to the bottom of Okinawa Trough, benthic foraminiferal fauna in the surface sediments can be divided into 5 assemblages: (1) Continental shelf break assemblage, dominated by Cibicides pseudoungerianus, corresponds to subsurface water mass of the Kuroshio Current; (2) upper continental slope assemblage, dominated by Cassidulina carinata , Globocassidulina subglobosa, corresponds to intermediate water mass of the Kuroshio Current; (3) intermediate continental slope assemblage, dominated by Uvigerina hispi-da, corresponds to the Okinawa Trough deep water mass above the carbonate lysocline; (4) lower continental slope- trough bottom assemblage, dominated by Pullenia bulloides, Epistominella exigua and Cibicidoides hyalinus, corresponds to deep water mass of the Okinawa Trough; and (5) trough bottom agglutinated assemblage, dominated by Rhabdammina spp. , Bathysiphon flavidus, corresponds to strongly dissolved environment of the trough bottom. The benthic foraminiferal fauna in the southern Okinawa Trough are controlled jointly by water masses and food supply. Water temperature, oxygen concentration and carbonate dissolution of the water masses are important controlling factors especially for the continental shelf break and trough bottom assemblages. The food supply also plays an important role in these benthic foraminiferal assemblages along the western slope of the Okinawa Trough. Both the abundance and the 5 assemblages of benthic foraminifera correspond well to the organic matter supply along the continental slope and a lateral transport of TSM (total suspended matter) and POC (particulate organic carbon) from the shelf break to the deep water is also an important food supply for benthic fauna in this region.

Impact of COVID-19 Epidemic on the International Food Supply Chain and Countermeasures of Shandong Province

The COVID-19 epidemic has exerted an impact on the global food supply chain,and also has contributed to the tendency of food hoarding and short supply;strong food demand has led to a rapid rise in international food prices,which has put enormous pressure on China's food import,and domestic food price showed a rise trend accordingly.In order to ensure sufficient and stable supply of China's food market,it is necessary to adhere to the food security strategy of"food self-sufficiency"for a long term.In the spring agricultural production,Shandong Province has taken effective measures to stabilize food production and achieved good results.It has not been greatly affected by the COVID-19 epidemic;however,under the continuous spread of foreign epidemics,we must adhere to the dual hard core operation of epidemic prevention and production,and explore the establishment of technical specifications for agricultural production under normal conditions for epidemic prevention and control to ensure the food security.

High Linoleic Acid in the Food Supply Worldwide-What are the Consequences?

The macronutrient composition of food supply in China has altered dramatically in the past 70 years.Fat(oil)has increased more than 4.2-times while the carbohydrate content has declined by 34%.Vegetable oils are the major component of the fat intake and since these oils are rich in linoleic acid,there has been a significant rise in the consumption of this fatty acid(as much as a 4-fold rise).Linoleic acid has essential functions in the body in skin and as a precursor of prostaglandins and related compounds.The current intakes of linoleic acid are well in excess of the minimum requirements.In this review,the effects of a food supply rich in linoleic acid on pain in arthritis and headache,non-alcoholic fatty liver and neural function are explored,with emphasis on lipid mediators derived from linoleic acid and other long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids.The current world food systems have created an imbalance of dietary linoleic acid in relation to n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids,and an imbalance in the lipid mediators derived from these polyunsaturated fatty acids which may be contributing to sub-optimal health status.

Slackening of Food Supply Chain during COVID-19 and Affecting Livelihood - A Global Concern

The outbreak of COVID-19 has brought about another age on world as the human civilization is restricted in many aspects of everyday lives.There is no exception in the sector of food production and the supply chain of food.Due to constraints on demand,shutting of food production facilities,financial limitations,enterprise operations and delivery of different food items have been interrupted in the food supply chain.Every nation must comprehend the importance of the situation according to the spreading scenario of the ongoing pandemic.The probability of transmission via the food sector is regarded inconsequential,and the public authorities do not believe it necessary to follow COVID into workplaces.The unfavourable effects on the climate,the food framework and the people of the foodstuffs network are evident.An installation for the food supply chain should focus on amenities such as maintaining the safety and health of employees and changing working circumstances.This paper aims at discussing the effects of COVID-19 on the socio-economic status of human being including the negative impacts on the agriculture and food supply chain.

Blockchain adoption or contingent sourcing? Advancing food supply chain resilience in the post-pandemic era

In the post-pandemic era, food supply chains and firms therein are facing unprecedented severe challenges, because once infection is detected, numerous products must be recalled or abandoned, and both suppliers and retailers in the supply chain suffer enormous loss. To survive under the pandemic, retailers have adopted different sourcing strategies, such as contingent sourcing, which, in turn, affect the upstream suppliers and hence the resilience of the whole supply chain. With the rapid development of digital technologies, retailers nowadays can utilize blockchain as a reliable and efficient way to reduce product risk and hence advance the resilience of food supply chains by improving product traceability and inspection accuracy, and making sourcing transparent. In this paper, we develop a game-theoretic model to investigate the interrelation between the retailer’s decisions on blockchain adoption and sourcing strategies. We consider that a retailer originally orders from a risky supplier while conducting an imperfect inspection to detect infected products before selling. The retailer may speculatively keep on ordering from the risky supplier or adopt contingent sourcing by ordering from an alternative safe supplier. The retailer also has an option to implement blockchain to improve the inspection accuracy and product traceability. We derive the optimal retail prices under different sourcing strategies with and without blockchain adoption and then analyze the incentives for sourcing strategy and blockchain adoption. Then, we identify the conditions of an all-win situation for food retailer, supplier, supply chain resilience, and consumers with/without government subsidy. Finally, we extend to consider the situation that some consumers have health-safety concerns and preferences for blockchain adoption.

Enabling affordances of blockchain in agri-food supply chains:A value-driver framework using Q-methodology

The application of blockchain beyond cryptocurrencies has received increasing attention from industry and scholars alike.Given predicted looming food crises,some of the most impactful deployments of blockchains are likely to concern food supply chains.This study outlined how blockchain adoption can result in positive affordances in the food supply chain.Using Q-methodology,this study explored the current status of the agri-food supply chain and how blockchain technology could be useful in addressing existing challenges.This theorization leads to the proposition of the 3TIC value-driver framework for determining the enabling affordances of blockchain that would increase shared value for stakeholders.First,we propose a framework based on the most promising features of blockchain technology to overcome current challenges in the agri-food industry.Our value-driver framework is driven by the Q-study findings of respondents closely associated with the agri-food supply chain.This framework can provide supply chain stakeholders with a clear perception of blockchain affordances and serve as a guideline for utilizing appropriate features of technology that match organizations’capabilities,core competencies,goals,and limitations.Therefore,it could assist top-level decision-makers in systematically evaluating parts of the organization to focus on and improve the infrastructure for successful blockchain implementation along the agri-food supply chain.We conclude by noting certain significant challenges that must be carefully addressed to successfully adopt blockchain technology.

Traceability implementation in food supply chain: A grey-DEMATEL approach

Numerous incidents of food adulteration,fraudulence and foodborne disease outbreaks have shaken the consumer confidence towards the food they consume.These incidents compel the Food Supply Chain(FSC)partners to implement an appropriate traceability system in their respective supply chains to sustain the consumer confidence.The objective of this research is to identify the drivers(major factors)which play a significant role in the successful implementation of the traceability system in FSC and evaluate the causal relationships developing therein.Twelve drivers are identified towards implementation of the traceability system in FSC through literature review and supported with expert’s opinion.The grey-based DEMATEL approach is identified to evaluate these relationships among the drivers according to their net effect.Further,these drivers ranked based on the prominence and effect score.The finding of this research shows that the drivers are clustered into two groups namely:influential(cause)and influenced(effect)group.Four drivers belong to the influential group,and remaining eight are from the influenced group.The most influential driver is the “food safety and quality”which provide a significant effect on the implementation of a traceability system.This research can be a building block to develop a framework to implement the traceability system within FSC and assist the policymakers,and practitioners to identify and evaluate drivers related to the implementation of traceability system in FSC.This paper also provides a useful insight&support to the practitioners and managers in decision making for traceability implementation related issues。

Changes in the food supply capacity of alpine grassland ecosystem:A dialectic synthesis of natural and anthropogenic drivers

Grassland-based animal husbandry and livestock production is the main contributor to livelihood creation for herdsmen.By using the structural dynamics method,this study quantified the changes in the food supply capacity(FSC)of alpine grassland ecosystem and sensitivity to significant variables.The findings indicated that:i)Natural factors were the dominated forces affecting FSC,and their contribution was 71.3%.Of these natural elements,the net primary productivity(NPP)and precipitation were the largest contributors,accounting for approximately 35%.The sensitivity index of the FSC to NPP and precipitation during grassland growing season were 4.1 and 1.9 respectively.On the contrary,human factors like warm shed area,density of road,capacity for access to information,contributed to 28.7%of the total FSC.ii)More intense snow disaster had a larger negative impact on FSC.Snow disaster can cause dramatic reduction in FSC,with a loss rate of 27.6%and with none intense disaster more negative impacts,iii)The continuing increase of FSC in the past 30 years from 1984 to 2014 was due to the significant increase of precipitation and NPP in the growing season of alpine grassland.Evidently,successful adaptation to climate change was critical to combat the climatic adversely impact on FSC.Typically,strengthening information dissemination,road accessibility and knowledge popularization of local residents'disaster reduction should be place high priority for improving FSC。

Quality control in food supply chain with dynamic quality characteristics

Food adulteration in recent years has attracted wide media and public attention.Preventing and controlling risk factors that harm the quality and safety of the food supply chain and reducing the probability of food safety incidents have become important concerns for all main participant groups in the food supply chain.In this study,we use a differential game model to examine the strategic quality control behaviour of participants in a food supply chain comprising two food raw material suppliers and one food manufacturer.We study two cases,one of the centralised system and one of the decentralised system,and fully characterise the equilibrium quality control decisions of all participants in both cases.The findings show that under the centralised setting,the quality control of the raw material suppliers and the manufacturer reaches the optimal level.More importantly,the system can reach coordination through participants sharing their quality cost.

The prospects for China＇＇s food security and imports： Will China starve the world via imports？

China＇s food supply and demand have significant implications for both China＇s own national food security and that of the world. This study reviews China＇s food security prospects and their implications, focusing on international trade in the coming decade. The results show that China＇s policies for ensuring food security will be enhanced and China will move to sustainable agriculture. Most studies anticipate that China will increase its food and feed imports in the coming decade. China＇s overall food self-sufficiency is likely to fall from 94.5% in 2015 to around 91% by 2025. The greatest increases in imports are likely to be soybean, maize, sugar, and dairy products. However, within the production capacity of the major exporting countries and of many food-importing developing countries, China＇s additional imports of 3 to 5% of its total food consumption in the coming decade are unlikely to threaten global food security. Indeed, the projected imports of feed and several foods could provide opportunities for many exporting countries to expand their production and save global resources.

Poverty reduction through the development of inclusive food value chains

Propelled by urbanization,rising incomes,and changing diets,food markets have been expanding in Africa and South Asia,creating the vast potential for job and income opportunities along food supply chains and,hence,for poverty reduction.The novel coronavirus(COVID-19)that spread to a pandemic in early 2020 provokes enormous setbacks to this expansion.This,however,should provide lessons regarding the importance of resilient and inclusive food systems.Emergency responses to COVID-19 should consider interventions towards that end and leverage the opportunities provided by food markets growth as economies recover from the present economic recession.This paper assesses options of how this could be done by facilitating the better functioning and interconnectedness of the many small and medium-sized enterprises that are proliferating along the"hidden middle"of food value chains in storage,logistics,transportation,and wholesale and retail distribution.It also explores how policies can help smallholder farmers connect to this"hidden middle"in more gainful ways and help them climb out of poverty as well.

Finite State Automaton for Food Traceability

To model the operation of food traceability, features of food supply chain are studied. The aim of the paper is to build an abstract model of food traceability, and to gain better understanding of food traceability and food safety. Based on the analysis of consumers＇ behavior of searching for traceability information, a finite state automaton for food traceability is presented by using automata theory. The states of the food supply chain are represented by a state transition diagram. The automaton in this paper simulates the entire food supply chain and provides a theoretical basis for the behavior description and structural design of a food traceability system.

A Food Traceability System Based on Blockchain and Radio Frequency Identification Technologies

The frequent occurrence of food safety accidents at the global level has triggered consumer sensitivity. Establishing a food traceability system can effectively guarantee food safety and increase consumer confidence and satisfaction. Existing food traceability systems often ignore environmental factors that affect food quality at all stages of the supply chain, and the authenticity of the information obtained through traceability is difficult to guarantee. In this study, a food supply chain traceability model was established based on blockchain and radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies. The model focused on the traceability of environmental data during the various stages of the food supply chain and combined a centralized database and blockchain for data storage. The lot identification data of the various supply chain stages were stored in a centralized database, while the environmental data were stored in a blockchain. Thereby, the authenticity and accuracy of the traceability data were ensured. The blockchain part of the model has been simulated in the Ethereum test environment, and the experiment has achieved traceability of temperature data.

Changes of population growth in Tibet Autonomous Region

The population of the Tibet Autonomous Region which is thinly scattered, is almost entirely Tibetan. The unique high and cold climate, varied and changeable topography and social economic and human environment restrict population mobility in the region. Historically there were little statistic documents and the early data about population scale is poorly reliable. After the peaceful liberation of Tibet in 1951, its population went up continuously, and the growth rate has been higher than the national average level since 1964. The general tendency was that the pattern of population increase had changed within a short period. At first, the death rate was lowered quickly and the natural population increase speed was quickened, then, the death rate was lowered further, and the birth rate began to rise at a quick speed. After 1970, both the death rate and birth rate was generally stable, the level was relatively lower than before, the death rate slowed down at a quicker speed than the birth rate. The natural population increase rate rose extremely slowly, which formed the population development situation of fast but steady increase. The future population development tendency is that, the quick increase tendency characterized by young population will continue for quite a long time, and the pressure of future population increase upon resources environment will become increasingly great. The age structure and sex composition of population in Tibet, rather low since long time ago, became increasingly high upon entering the 1980s, but it was still the lowest one compared to other provinces or regions in China. The main reason is due to the low sex ratio of Tibetan infants and children caused by the low sex ratio of newly born infants and the high death rate of male infants, which will slow down the population increase in a limited way. There are few barren lands appropriate for farming and there exist many restricting factors for cultivation or utilization. With further increase in Tibetan population, it is inevitable that per capita available cultivated land will drop continuously. The problem of food supply in Tibet will still be the main issue in its regional development with the increase of population. It is impossible to support a quickly increasing population with the limited agricultural resources in Tibet. Therefore, the population development direction of Tibet can only be to tighten quantity control and to popularize family planning knowledge among Tibetan people. It is a fundamental strategic policy for the social and economic development in Tibet if family planning can be followed progressively on a voluntary basis.

SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE: ITS STATUS QUO AND TREND IN CHINA

Agriculture is a complex of processes that takes place within a threefold (that is, bio-physical, socio-political and techno-economic) environmatal framework. The sustainability of agriculturral systems can also be assessed within this framework. Sustainable agnculture has different meanings at various spatial scales At local and regional scales, it is just ecological farming. At national and global scales, however, the emphasis is put on the issues of food production and distribution. Based upon the framework, this paper discusses the current situation and future trend of Chinese agriculture in relation to sustainability.

Covid-19, Challenges and Recommendations in Agriculture

On 11 March 2020,the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 is a pandemic disease that is spreading at different speeds in different countries of the world.Given these issues,the global economy is experiencing a different and new experience that is currently taking place in different countries.We are seeing a decrease in production,logistical problems,as well as a change in production patterns,demand and consumption.The agricultural sector has not been immune to the economic damage of the outbreak and has suffered serious damage.If the necessary measures are not taken for sustainable production in agriculture and maintaining the supply and demand cycle,health and food security will face a crisis.Given that there is always a zero point again about the prevalence and infection,social quarantine and health care are still essential.To manage the problems caused by the Corona crisis,accurate and appropriate programs,mechanisms,and evaluations with different strategies are needed,and appropriate sustainable models should be considered for spatial and temporal requirements.

Impact of Urbanization on Agricultural Land in Makurdi Local Government Area of Benue State,Nigeria

This study assessed the impact of urbanization on agricultural land in Makurdi local government area of Benue State.The data collected were population figures and land use for three Epoch(1997,2007 and 2017).The satellite images were sourced from the National Center for Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System,Jos.In the analysis,cross change detection analysis and overlay analysis using ArcGIS 9.0 was performed to detect where land-use change has occurred and which type of land use agricultural land has transformed too.The GIS analysis revealed that there is an increase in settlement and a decrease in Agricultural land from 1997–2017.It also revealed that 99.51ha of agricultural land use has been converted to settlement between 1997 and 2017.The results reveal that urbanization has significant effects on Agricultural Land in the study area and these effects include;decreasing agricultural land,decreasing agricultural activities and decrease in farm size.If the growth in the population of Makurdi LGA continues unchecked,agricultural land will be significantly depleted in the future.The study recommended that there should be effective law and policy to control population growth sustainably to minimize the negative impact of urbanization in the study area.Also,urban agriculture should be encouraged to sustain the food supply in urban areas.

Transition towards sustainability in agriculture and food systems:Role of information and communication technologies

Food sustainability transitions refer to transformation processes necessary to move towards sustainable food systems.Digitization is one of the most important ongoing transformation processes in global agriculture and food chains.The review paper explores the contribution of information and communication technologies(ICTs)to transition towards sustainability along the food chain(production,processing,distribution,consumption).A particular attention is devoted to precision agriculture as a food production model that integrates many ICTs.ICTs can contribute to agro-food sustainability transition by increasing resource productivity,reducing inefficiencies,decreasing management costs,and improving food chain coordination.The paper also explores some drawbacks of ICTs as well as the factors limiting their uptake in agriculture.

Blockchain: A new safeguard for agri-foods

Blockchain implementation in agriculture has begun.Blockchain is recognized as an emerging technology in the agri-foods industry which may provide an efficient and robust mechanism for enhancing food traceability and a transparent and reliable way to validate quality,safety,and sustainability,of agri-foods.However,the technology is in its nascency,therefore,this review was written to foster discussion and encourage the application of blockchain technology,especially in the agri-food industry.In this review,the working principle of blockchain for data recording and tracking is briefly described.The collaborationmodels for the current blockchain applications on agri-foods are summarized.Furthermore,the specific utilization of blockchain to enhance safety and quality of agri-foods is discussed in four aspects:enhance the data transparency,realize data traceability,improve the food safety and quality monitoring,and reduce the cost of financial transactions.A case study on aWalmart pork traceability system has been provided to demonstrate how blockchain may be used to enhance the food traceability.Finally,challenges and future trends of blockchain technology in agri-foods concerning data/cost management,data security,and data integration are discussed.Blockchain technology reveals a promising approach to foster a future of agri-foods system in a way that is safer,healthier,more sustainable,and reliable.